Family Friendly

I want to take a moment to say that I am so thankful that I have such a family friendly employer. Seriously. It is hard being a working mom. REALLY hard. Its even harder when, like me, you don't have a traditional 40-hour a week type job. Being an attorney is a demanding job, both mentally and in terms of time committment. I honestly do not think I would be able to continue doing it if I didn't have such an amazing boss and firm.

As with most associate attorneys, I have a minimum billable hour requirement that my firm expects me to meet each year. Its pretty ambititious and requires a lot of hard work to meet it. Unfortunately, for a variety of reasons (mostly Bennett's multiple hospitalizations and illnesses this past year, and his insane number of doctor appointments), I just was not able to meet that requirement. I was definitely working hard, but the demands of life were simply too much.

So, I was rather expecting that my boss would really get on my case about it. I prayed on more than one occassion that they please not fire me! I went into my year-end review with a healthy sense of nervousness and anticipation.

Now, don't get me wrong, the issue definitely came up. But my boss said to me "You are a wife, mother and lawyer. If you have to be mediocre at any of those things, it should be the lawyer." Wow.

A lot of employers claim to be family friendly. But when it comes down to it, they really aren't. I am SO incredibly thankful and lucky to be able to work for a firm that really truly is family friendly. When I was in the hospital on bedrest while pregnant with Bennett, they didn't push me to work. They said to do what I could. After Bennett was born and during his 9 week NICU stay, they told me to focus on my baby. When my maternity leave ran out, and my baby was still in the hospital, and later when he was home on oxygen and a gazillion medications and there was no way I was leaving him yet - they compromised and let me work from home part time. No one blinks an eye when I roll out of here at 5:30 p.m. No one says a word when I miss time because I have to take Bennett to this doctor or that doctor. They have my welfare as a person in mind, and realize that being a mom is a HUGE part of who I am. If they were not so accomodating, there is no way I would have been able to continue pursuing my career. They made it so I didn't have to choose between my career and my children.

I do not take this for granted. Not one second. I know this comes at a cost to my firm. I know they are making a long-term investment in me. This type of work environment is invaluable. It makes it easy to be loyal to a firm like this. The more they invest in me - the more I want to invest in them. If only more employers were like this!!!!

Merry (belated) Christmas!

Be forewarned - there will be a picture explosion in this post! I take that as a sign of a great holiday!

Our festivities started Christmas Eve! Carter and I set to work in the kitchen busily cooking up a storm! See me here modeling my new apron my mom made (yes, with her own two hands) for me!
Carter and I baked a delicious cranberry-apple pie! It was very yumm but a tad tart, so of course, you must pair with vanilla bean ice cream. Of course!


Pie in hand, we headed north for a celebration with my family. Here is Grandpa with his two boys! These kids adore him!
Bennett tackling Grandma!My sisters made the most wonderful gifts for the boys this year! My sister Katie knitted stuffed animals - a lion for Carter and a rabbit for Bennett! They are toooo adorable!

And my sister Tia knitted each boy a blankie with their initial on it! Bennett instantly took to his!
Katie also made me this adorable wall hanging! Well, she didn't carve the frame, but she sewed the little quilted picture that went inside! She is opening an Etsy shop soon, and I will share that info with you once I get it. Of course!

Then we made the late-night trek back to our abode. Christmas morning, Carter came downstairs and warily tiptoed toward the family room. Afraid to peek in, he stopped short and said "Mom, did Santa come???" Then he did his happy dance and bee-lined toward the mountain of presents. Now, I should put a disclaimer that this mountain also includes presents from Nana and Pop Pop - we don't spoil our children that much. Nope, we let their massive family do that!

Bennett seemed to prefer to climb on top of his presents...
The poor thing isn't heavy enough to operate his bouncy-turtle, so we have to bounce it for him! Soon little buddy, soon...
Modeling the new boots daddy got mommy!
Chillin' in his new wheels - his absolute favorite gift. From Nana and Pop Pop!


Later Christmas day, we headed to Ace's parents' house. Here I am with my gorgeous sisters-in-law!

Here is the whole clan! Including Ace's 99 year old grandmother!
Our little family. Don't ask me why Ace wore orange on Christmas....My favorite part of Christmas with Ace's family are the games his dad comes up with! Each year, he has several games, and he awards cash prizes to the winners! This year, we had diaper races with the babies! Here are my nephew Ethan and Bennett (who are only 2.5 weeks apart in age!) racing! I loooved the awesome racing shirts my father-in-law had made for them!
Bennett took off with zest, only to be intercepted by Carter, allowing Ethan to take the lead and steal the win!
Then the big kids decided they needed to race too! My niece Charlize handily won that match :)
We had such a wonderful holiday this year! Everyone was in the Christmas spirit! So much love and laughter.

Merry Christmas!!!!

I WILL

You know me. I'm stuck on the proverbial hamster wheel. Not just with my career, which is endlessly sucking hours out of my day that I don't even have. But, with everything. Every week I start off believing THIS week, I will do it right. I will keep my life in order. I will enforce routines. But it never happens. I swear, once upon a time, I really did have my life together. I dunno what happened. Oh yeah, I had another baby (and I want another one too, like, really bad). But, I refuse to surrender defeat and conclude that those days are gone for good. So, yep, each Sunday night, I sit here and write out my game plan for getting my act together.

This week I WILL...

...get up when my alarm goes off at 5:00 a.m. No matter how sleepy (or, lazy) I feel or cold the house is. Or, how much sleep I got the night before.

...work out each and every morning. Again, no matter how lazy I feel. I mean, sleepy.

...leave the house on time, no matter what dilatory tactics Carter pulls.

...focus at work and make every minute count, resulting in less work I have to bring home with me and more billable hours.

...eat healthy, whole foods. I will NOT cave into that evil little demon inside my head that says "but you NEED that Coke because you need the caffeine jolt."

..."eat the frog" and conquer my most-loathed task first thing in the day.

...not sit down at night to "relax" until my home to-do's are scratched off, and I've spent 15 minutes doing general pick up around the house.

...fold AND put away the laundry on the same day I wash and dry it. As opposed to leaving it in piles around the house for the entire week like I usually do.

Yes, I WILL do these things. You'll hold me accountable, won't you?

But if I don't, please don't judge me too harshly because I never have a problem with plastering my babies with kisses, and cuddling with them and soaking them up and breathing them in. And those "to do's" mean so much more in the long run, right??? But I digress, because I'm determined. I WILL regain control.

What Memories Are Made Of

This weekend was filled to the brim full of family, friends and fun! Indeed, one of those weekends where memories are made!



On Friday evening, I hosted a BBQ at my crib for a bunch of ladies from my mommy-board! There are about 100 women on my board, and we all try to meet up "in real life" whenever possible! Friday, we had a lady from Texas, a lady from Iowa and a lady from Massachusetts, and their families!!!

This is a picture of my best friend Melissa, her son Elijah, and Bennett and I.


Saturday night, Ace's sister bought us tickets to the Jason Mraz concert at Merriweather Post Pavilion for Ace's birthday. It started out the perfect night for an outdoor concert - and the the heavens opened up and we got DRENCHED!!!!










He we are trying in vain to stay dry under our picnic blanket! That lasted all of 10 minutes...












And here we are post-downpour, using our ponchos as make-shift green houses to stay warm! It never felt so good to get home and peel off the wet clothes!

But it was so worth it - Jason Mraz was awesome and sooooo talented!!!!









Sunday, we went with Ace's family to Medieval Times to celebrate Ace's 31st birthday (yep, old dude!) and my sister-in-law's birthday as well.









Both boys really loved it! Bennett was clapping and cheering the whole time! Carter was pretend sword fighting in the aisle!










And a bonus picture of Bennett giggling with his uncle!!!!!!!!!!!!